IR receiver as USB keyboard

[Arthur] built an IR receiver to use with XBMC. Because it’s software specific he identifies the device on USB as a keyboard, and passes the IR commands as keystrokes used by the popular media platform.

Normally, homebrew IR receivers would use LIRC, the Linux Infrared Remote Control software. But this method doesn’t require you to have that running. In fact, it doesn’t need any setup on the PC end of things. Any remote that uses the Sony SIRC protocol will work off the bat.

[Arthur] chose a PIC 18f2550 for the project. It is a popular microcontroller because it has built-in USB handling. We’re a bit skeptical of the hardware design though. We didn’t see specifically which IR receiver he’s using, but many require some type of filtering so check the suggested layout in the datasheet for your module.

Actually I might going to build this one. It seems to be simple and useful.

LIRC is a piece of trash project, it only support a very narrow range of receivers. If you have built in infrared sensor in your laptop or PC or an external USB infrared tool you have almost no chance to make that work in linux. One of the worst hardware support in linux is definitely Infrared and now that it’s replaced by wifi/wimax/bluetooth won’t be developed in the future either.

If you have a windows box then don’t bother with this but if you use linux, bsd, solaris etc this project is the way to go.

I did something similar but only on a plugboard. I emulated a USB keyboard and used a remote control to play world of warcraft with it. I don’t have the circuit or software any more but I did make a video of it –

Thanks for sharing it for me Hackaday :), and i will put a parts list of the project on instructables(The receiver was a TSOP6238).

[fartface], i would be happy to buy the windows remote,but as a live in brazil i can’t get anything easily and without paying a lot on taxes (around 100%).Sometimes it’s faster,and sure more fun, to do it yourself.

I’m sorry about the sloppy construction,it was just a prototype (but it’s working until now and i don’t see no reason to spend more time on it).I think it’s easy to make this thing small,you just need a way to build it (gets hard with handmade PCB,and single sided boards).